Yates of the Yard quits Met over phone-hacking scandal

Last man out, leave your resignation on the desk

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Scotland Yard's Assistant Commissioner John Yates quit his job with the Metropolitan Police this afternoon.

The Met issued this brief statement:

"Assistant Commissioner John Yates has this afternoon indicated his intention to resign to the Chair of the MPA [Metropolitan Police Authority].

"This has been accepted. AC Yates will make a statement later this afternoon."

Yates's resignation comes just one day after the Met's chief policeman, Sir Paul Stephenson, walked from his job while insisting that his "integrity" was intact. He said he was stepping down due to the "excessive distraction" his presence at the helm was causing to the effective running of Britain's largest police force.

It has been reported that Yates was responsible for vetting Neil Wallis's company, Chamy Media, which won a contract to offer PR services to Scotland Yard between October 2009 and September 2010.

Wallis was the former deputy editor of the News of the World, the now-defunct News International tabloid at the centre of the phone-tapping storm that has engulfed parent company News Corp, headed up by media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

London Mayor Boris Johnson described both Stephenson's and Yates's resignations as "regrettable".

He described "the nexus of the relationship" between the Met and the NotW as "distracting". ®